Possession is not ownership. It a temporary right of use until you die, or you lose it, it becomes obsolete or it is stolen from you.

Truth is we use almost none of our stuff regularly. Keep only the tools that you use several times everday in a million ways.

Rent or borrow the rest. Buy second hand or acquire free and then resell afterwards. As a Bricoleur you can learn to make things work. You’ll find uncommon solutions from all the wrong parts with make do tools. You’ll find ways to do things like get all of the paint for your house free. You’ll stop needing the store. Both thumbs will turn green and your pasty office calves will become cows under the power of the pedal.

Trust me two years of simple living and you’ll hardly recgonise the person you’ll become. Your skills, abilities and your creativity will expand tenfold. You’ll win the choice to keep working and horde money or kick back and live the idle life. Living simply on not very much money at all is a truly sane choice.

Like this:

A very interesting study byBoivin et al. examined the impact of 34 vegetables on 8 different types of cancer.

The results suggest that eating a mixed plant based diet has dramatic results on cancer cell development, growth and (perhaps) decline. Garlic isn’t a magic bullet, but evidence suggests that eating an array of plants (especially garlic) is the best protection money can buy. Better than pills and much cheaper than treatment.

One of the most delicious and potent anti-cancer agents identified in this study was garlic. The effects reported were so profound (see the tables in the link above) that it is worthwhile ensuring garlic is a mainstay in your day.

Both cooked and raw garlic have equal impact especially if cooked garlic is crushed and left for 10 minutes before adding to a stew or one pot meal. Frying garlic, like frying anything, decreases its nutritional value.

Share this:

Like this:

“May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children”Rainer Maria Rilke

This is a wonderful documentary. It tells the story of someone who found their bliss.

I like it for three reasons.

This man has found what he loves and has had the courage to forget money and do it. I’m always drawn to stories about people that make a seismic shift from the prescribed pattern of life.

Through simple living he is able to find the financial freedom to do what he really wants to do.

The combination of being in the zone (flow state) and his visual degeneration is a perfect cocktail to ignore the opinion of others. Many of us would be too self-conscious and too concerned about what other people think to let go and enjoy life this much.

Like this:

You say things to yourself when you try to save money. Terrible things like…

“I can’t afford it!”.

You can.

You are choosing not to for the greater goal.

The truth is you should say something like “I choose not to afford it because savings are better!”.

Another cancerous line…”I deserve it”.

Actually you don’t. By crushing your savings for an impulse ‘deserve it’ item you are surviving instead of thriving. You are destroying the power of your money for a short term nothing.

Some might say that this small indiscretion doesn’t matter.

It does.

Your savings are a bucket. If you make even the tiniest crack in the bucket it will bleed more than one drop. It will leak until it is empty. To release a single drop is as impossible as a sword cutting itself with it’s own blade.

It is hard just to cajole yourself into a savings mode in the first place. S0 stop thinking about your savings as being lost to you. Almost like it becomes someone else’s money. It’s all yours. Saving it gives you future monetary power and freedom. It is your future, food, water, power and shelter. These things are always more important than a saving hiatus holiday or a reward car.

Talk strong and defend your bucket from those greedy merchants that would use their honeyed talk to keep you in corporate slavery the entirety of your life.

Share this:

Like this:

“The secret of joy in work is contained in one word – excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it”

Pearl S. Buck

In a previous rant I outed myself as someone that thinks that most modern work is pointless, easy and dull. Almost all of the people that I know (including our family) does work solely for money. Alan Watts once said that the most important question for every adult to ask is ‘what makes you itch?’. He goes on to ask what you would do if money was no object – what is your passion? In finding that Watts says that you will find something that you love. In turn it is likely that you will spend a significant amount of time actively engaged in it and in doing so you will achieve mastery. Mastery in any field brings with it the possibility that you can charge a fee in return for your expertise. You will also be unlikely to deterred by minor road blocks if you enjoy it and have spent countless hours doing it for free. You can listen to this short thought provoking message here.

Figuring out what makes you itch is not an easy business by any means. I have found that we are more easily able to describe what we don’t want. We know in great detail what we don’t want, but we have no clue what it is that we would find so stimulating that we could spend hour on hour in a blissful flow state. I agree with Alan that it is better to live a short poor life doing what you love rather than a long boring life doing stuff for money simply to be able to get up tomorrow to do it all again.